MSc Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation Student Ambassador, Cosima Friedle, shares her tips for surviving the pandemic lockdown whilst being a student in London.

It has been some weeks now that London, as many other parts of the UK, is in lockdown again. Although this is not the first lockdown for most of us, you might be feeling a bit lost again.

Here are five tips for you on how to survive lockdown in London.

Don’t be too hard on yourself: allow yourself to be unproductive

Since the majority of free time activities are restrained due to lockdown rules, some people easily fall into the trap of replacing the time usually spent on these activities with working or studying.

Especially students, who often feel lots of pressure, tend to use the extra time for more academic readings and writing essays. However, this will not lead you to being more productive, instead you will feel overworked and stressed because you’re not giving yourself the rest you need.

Make sure you still spend a certain amount of your time on lockdown-compatible free-time activities.

Find new free-time activities

I will not tell you anything new when I say that it´s a great idea to meet friends and family virtually on Zoom, Skype or any other platform. But instead of simply meeting and having a chat, you could come up with something more creative. Organise cooking events, wine tasting evenings or online games nights with your friends or family.

Apart from staying connected to your friends virtually, try to spend at least some time outside every day and go for a daily walk (when currently in London, don’t forget to pack your umbrella!).

If you prefer to stay at home, you can read a book, make a puzzle or learn coding in an online course.

Seeing how well others are coping with the current situation might also undermine negative feelings we might have…

Practice JOMO instead of FOMO

Often we feel like we are missing out when we spend a night in instead of meeting friends. Lockdown is giving us the chance to experience JOMO, the joy of missing out, instead of the fear of missing out (FOMO).

We don’t have to feel pressured to join every party but can try to enjoy spending some time with ourselves. Not having to feel this fear of missing out can be a relief because we can free ourselves from the social pressure.

Limit your time on Social Media

Having to spend basically all day at home, it can feel tempting to spend lots of time on social media platforms.

While this is an easy way to spend (or should I say waste?) time, it does not always help us to feel better. Seeing how others are super productive during lockdown, baking one banana bread between a quick run and a decluttering session of the whole flat, can quickly put pressure on us.

Seeing how well others are coping with the current situation might also undermine negative feelings we might have and make us feel like we are reacting overly dramatic to the lockdown situation.

Sometimes it can help to focus on ourselves and reduce our use of Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

…it’s good mental practice to direct your thoughts toward the time when the pandemic will have ended.

Plan your future

Although many of our thoughts and plans evolve around the pandemic at the moment, it is a good mental practice to direct your thoughts toward the time when the pandemic will have ended. Make a list of things you want to do once it is possible again.

Where do you want to travel first?

Which friend do you plan to visit first?

By setting up your post-pandemic Bucketlist, you will have something to look forward to which will make it easier to get through the lockdown.

Learn more about our MSc Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation programme